Officer of Merchant Navy

Who is an officer onboard of merchant vessel? He is someone who wields the rank as an officer which involves in variety of works such as navigation, deck maintenance, safety of handling of cargo, etc. He is an individual who possesses a high standard of leadership qualities. Working onboard a vessel, crossing through the charted oceans, and depart from one land then harbor to another land can be seen as a perfect picture of a seafarers’ life. While these things are the normal opinion of the land dweller who never been out to the sea, they never knew what type of individual are meant to be the officer that runs the vessel. There are several qualities that are important for the individual to be competent when doing his job as an officer. A few basic qualities required in the officers are punctuality, self-discipline and responsibility.

Punctuality is one of the leadership qualities needed onboard. Punctuality means to be arriving on the set time. In the strong maritime community that has existed for millennia, it is the iron rule of seafarer to come for their shift on time. Life onboard is very strict when concerning about time. Time is crucial factor when running the vessel because it is not easy to run a huge facility like ship at sea with utmost punctuality. All officers will always treasure the time like a saying goes, “time is gold”. Delay of any kind of operation can lead to the delay of the whole ship, resulting in loss of both time and money.

Discipline onboard is all about self-discipline and how as an officer managing his life and duty onboard. Everyone onboard a merchant vessel knows very well the meaning behind of self-discipline. It is the ability to commit oneself to come for duty without having others to tell when to do it. Onboard a vessel which crossing through the water from one end to another end, does not knows what is the meaning of taking a break. The vessel is constantly running with having someone on the bridge doing a look-out watches 24 hours per day and 7 days in a week. That being said, as officer it is important to have the skill of managing oneself or in other words have a good self-discipline. Seafarers are required to stay extremely disciplined and professional not only during working hours but also during the spare time on ships.

Responsibility is also one of the trait of a good officer. Responsibility means the obligation to perform and complete the task. An officer must be dutiful to his job as per job description stated in Ship Management System (SMS) manual. An individual with high sense of responsibility is welcomed in all kind of industry, this also include the maritime industry. When one do his work even if it is a petty task assign to him dutifully and shows a great result, it shows that he has high sense of responsibility toward the job.

In conclusion, an officer onboard a merchant vessel have a high standard of leadership qualities. This is because life onboard a merchant vessel is a tough place to survive for the individual called officer. Since, as an officers he shoulders a lot of responsibilities and need to carry out in a properly order so that the life onboard can be a bit comfortable for him.